


Step One

by ProwlingThunder



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adorable Kid Sasuke, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Competent Big Brothers, Gen, Sasuke Is Itachi's World, Teenage Ninja, Uchiha Massacre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-20
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-02-05 11:43:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1817317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProwlingThunder/pseuds/ProwlingThunder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uchiha Itachi is leaving Konoha. But... he can't seem to remember why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Step One

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline Wise: This happens literally _just_ after the Uchiha Massacre.

His vision was blurred along the edges, and the whole world was tinged red.

 

Red, red, more red. He tried to blink it away. It was having none of it. He kept walking instead, nonsense turning over in his head, old stories and fables he used to hear as a child, _tisket tasket what's in the basket?_ There was no basket. He tightened his fingers around the hilt of a dagger, the arm hanging numbly at his side, his other arm up, holding something tight against his chest, safe, secure, comforting--

 

The _something_ writhed against his armor, tickled against his throat.

 

He stopped. Glanced down.

 

Bristly black kitten-fluff, childish features softened even further in slumber, small fingers clutching at the white edge of a breast plate, cheeks smeared in the darkness with mud. The surge of protectiveness and possessiveness that came up at the sheer _sight_ of the child nearly caused him to choke.

 

_Sasuke._

 

He would know this child anywhere, in any life, no matter what. His whole world revolved around this child, all of seven that he was, bright and proud and full of hope, going in to the ninja academy specifically to follow his big brother...

 

Him, he realized, feeling something  _not quite right_ snap back into place at last. Something he had not realized he had been missing, mere moments prior. And the haze in his thoughts was beginning to lessen, the tumble organizing itself in to real, coherent words. He hounded this feeling, using Sasuke's very  _name_ as a lynchpin for  _whats missing?_

 

What  _was_ missing, anyway?

 

He sheathed the kunai in the thigh pouch and shifted Sasuke carefully to his other arm, slowly stretching sore muscles. His whole arm tingled; he flexed the fingers until the nerves were awake, then pulled another kunai from that side.

 

He was a ninja. He was armed. There had to be a reason.

 

_First step in a survival situation, go to ground_ . He was on the ground already, but that was not at all what the training meant. He started walking again; a moving target was harder to hit, and if there was a reason for him to be armed than there was a reason for him to be moving. Sasuke was an  _academy student_ , for crying out loud. In a real fight, he wouldn't be able to defend himself.

 

He wasn't going to let anyone  _breathe_ wrong in the direction of his little brother.

 

_Second step, situation report._ Brilliant. Reports were easy, simple. He could do them in his sleep.  _Special Jounin and academy student_ in the woods, mind, and where the hell  _were_ they, with trees like this?

 

Hnngh. Too much time with Asuma, if he was beginning to  _think_ with such words.

 

He glanced upwards at the crowns of the trees anyway,  _maple maple oak is that a cedar no a pine_ a mostly deciduous forest, with broad, bright green leaves, so it was likely they were still in Fire Country. Well away from Konoha though, judging by just how large most of the trees were. Even after seven years, the forests directly surrounding the village were still trying to recover from Kyuubi no Kitsune's rampage and raw, demonic chakra. Perhaps in another generation or two.

 

No visible signs of pursuers or a trap, which he considered a good thing for the moment, though the red glaze over his view of the world was still annoying. It was not a genjutsu; he was a  _specialist_ in that, as a Uchiha. He would have been able to tell if he were caught in one.

 

And also he had a mind-numbing pain in his knees and ankles that could only have come from reality, so that right there cast out a genjutsu. ...he cast a  _kai_ anyway, just to be sure.

 

Nothing changed.

 

_Magnificent_ .

 

It was probably an ocular nerve, or else one of the highways between that and his brain. Retina problems were pretty common in families with eye-based bloodline limits such as the Uchiha and Hyuuga. The human body had boundaries. There was a reason they prized in-house medical ninjas.

 

He was not one. He knew the basics-- everyone did. But if he started trying to heal his  _eyes_ , he would probably go blind for sheer ineptitude.

 

So. He knew where he was. Though  _somewhere in Fire Country_ and  _not in Konoha_ covered a broad area, and  _still in my own nation_ was about all he could apply to his current whereabouts until the sun rose or he hit a town.

 

In all honesty, the former was far more likely. It was bad poise to build near a ninja village, no matter that there were farming communities built outside the walls. Ninjas were a hazard in the same way living on an active volcano was a hazard, or building your house in a flood-prone valley. Though to be fair a lot of the farmers in those communities were retired ninja, damaged from the Great Ninja War or the attack of the giant nine-tailed fox or just in general  _retired_ .

 

He knew a bunch of them. Had even gone on missions with a few, though of course  _no one_ knew who their partners were during an ANBU black-op. Of course not.

 

He kept walking, mentally detailing over himself and Sasuke just what they carried. For Sasuke it was pretty simple; training kunai and throwing stars, blunted at the edges, barely worth even throwing. Academy training weapons were made in bulk out of rotten metal, poured instead of forged. They had imperfections and they tended to break at the slightest hint of true measure.

 

He carried a bit more. Straight ninja-to running parallel to his spine,  _family blade on his mother's side, Mother had given it to him, “You are my son, and you will make me proud with this,”_ and several collections of kunai and shuriken,  _bo_ and  _hira_ both. At least one  _orochi-_ kunai. Explosive tags. His ANBU gear, complete with the porcelain raven mask. Large travel pack, hopefully with rations and at least one change of gear. 

 

Oh, and information as to what he was  _doing out here with Sasuke in the middle of the woods_ . That would be nice.

 

Ha ha. Like he would be so lucky.

 

_Keep walking. We don't have time to stop._

**Author's Note:**

> There are SO MANY things I can and probably will do with this. At least two separate universes spawned from crafting this one little ficlit, and a few more might be on their way. It'll probably be used as the springboard for several universes.


End file.
